Typically, specially configured railroad locomotives having appended crane booms are used in manufacturing facilities or railroad yards to load and unload train cars with raw materials, scrap, product or the like. Such locomotive cranes are self-propelled like a typical locomotive and accordingly, are able to freely travel to destinations within a manufacturing facility or railroad yard for use. Locomotive cranes in the known prior art are adapted to include an appended crane boom controlled from the locomotive cab by the operator. Usually, the appended crane boom, at its outer end, is adapted to receive through the use of cables or otherwise, a device for loading and unloading, e.g., a magnet or scoop.
In practice, locomotive cranes are typically used to load and unload "gondola" cars, i.e., open-top substantially elongated railroad cars, containing, for example, scrap metal. The known prior art, however, is limited to locomotive cranes having what are commonly referred to as "lattice booms" appended thereto. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1a, reference numeral 25, lattice booms are constructed of a series of support trusses and fixed in a linear position. Lattice booms are, however, free to pivot at their point of attachment to the locomotive crane and are free to swing through a vertical arc to shorten the radius of the lifting point from the locomotive crane.
In operation, the known prior art cranes are moved to a position adjacent to a gondola car to be loaded or unloaded, and the operation is then commenced. Because the lattice type boom is not capable of being articulated or pivoted at points along its length, the operator must carefully position the locomotive at various distances from the gondola car or raise and cover the lattice boom at full length to compensate for the various loading points along the gondola car length. Accordingly, to unload that portion of the gondola car closest to the locomotive, the locomotive must be moved away from the load/unload point to a distance equal to that of the inflexible lattice boom or, alternatively, the angle of the lattice boom must be raised to a generally unstable position. In either case, the operator is somewhat removed from the immediate area of the load/unload point. In addition, the lattice boom is incapable of full extension through the length of the gondola car because of the low pivot point of the boom relative to the higher sides of the gondola car. An attempt to make an extension to alleviate this problem again results in possible hazardous and unstable conditions.
Use of the lattice crane boom for loading and unloading has, in turn, proved to be inefficient, cumbersome and extremely time-consuming. Moreover, the inflexibility of the lattice crane boom requires that an extended length of track be available for loading operations and further, unavoidably results in the operator being normally positioned at a point removed from the gondola car edge. This, too, greatly diminishes the efficiency of the loading or unloading operation.
As set forth below, the improved device serves to correct these deficiencies.